


A Tale of Two Spiders

by Andledee



Category: Marvel, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: College Student Peter Parker, Drama & Romance, F/M, Families of Choice, Friendship, Funny, Growing Up, Harry Osborn Needs a Hug, High School, Lizards, Marvel Universe, Multi, New York City, Norman Osborn's A+ parenting, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Precious Peter Parker, Romance, Teen Romance, Young Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:46:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26234371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andledee/pseuds/Andledee
Summary: In earth 2442, Peter was bitten by a radioactive spider, but he wasn’t the only child bitten that fateful day. Claire Connors, niece to Dr. Curtis Connors and longtime love interest of Peter’s, was also bitten by a different radioactive spider: a jumping spider. After that moment, their lives would forever be intertwined as they shape into the adults they are destined to become. Dealing with the dramas of growing up becomes a lot harder when it’s coupled with the heavy responsibility of hero work, especially when love is involved.
Relationships: Eddie Brock/Matt Murdock/Peter Parker/Venom Symbiote/Wade Wilson, Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote/Original Female Character(s), Harry Osborn & Original Female Character(s), Matt Murdock/Original Female Character(s), Peter Parker/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	1. Genesis

The Midtown High school bus was filled with rowdy teenagers as they made their way to Oscorp for a field trip. The chaperoning teachers sat up front, praying they wouldn’t get migraines from the noise and doing their best to ignore the kids. As usual, there was an inherent social segregation between the back and front of the bus: the front of the bus was the territory of the popular kids, whereas the less successful socialites sat in the back. Sitting amidst the popular crowd in the front was a beautiful blonde-haired girl known as Claire Connors. Seated near the back of the bus was a boy with somewhat messy brown hair and glasses named Peter Parker. They didn’t know it yet, but this day would be the day their lives would be forever changed and forever destined to be intertwined.  
Peter was disrupted from his reading when a wad of paper hit his head, startling him.  
“Score!” Flash Thompson laughed from the front of the bus, whooping childishly at the hit. A few of his friends joined in with the merriment. Peter did not share the merriment.  
“Flash, keep it up front,” Claire’s voice rang forth from the front of the bus, chastising the boy for his throw.  
Flash whined, “Aw c’mon Claire, hitting Parker is like hitting the baseboard!”  
Claire shook her head, adamant. “Not if he isn’t playing, let’s keep the paper ball up front where we’re actually playing, okay?”  
Peter took a moment to toss the paper ball back up front when the kids asked for it, snapping out of staring at Claire. The game resumed, keeping him out of it. Peter couldn’t help but smile a bit as he buried his face in his book again shyly. The fact that Claire stood up for him, although minor, tickled him pink. Really, any attention from Claire was appreciated.  
Of course, that was because he had had the biggest crush on her since 7th grade. Not that he was unique in that factor- a lot of guys thought she was cute. She was one of the most popular girls in the grade, after all. With her golden locks, bright smile, and cheery disposition with a sense of humor, she was quite the dynamite girl at Midtown High. And Peter was head over heels for her, even if he had no chance in Hell with her. She was way out of his league, first of all, and second, he could hardly form a coherent sentence around her. His chances were as good as zero.  
Finally, the bus stopped at Oscorp and unloaded the children. They all filed out and loosely gathered before the chaperones, who counted heads to ensure everyone was there. Peter lingered by his friend Harry, who had joked about the redundancy of this trip for him- after all, he was the CEO’s son. In fact, his penthouse apartment was at the top of Oscorp, so he was essentially taking a field trip home.  
After heads were counted, they started randomly assigning partners for a standard buddy system. Peter was surprised to hear his name called with Claire as her buddy. Claire looked over at him as their names were called together, and the panic quickly set in. She smiled and walked over while the poor boy lost all semblance of conscious, intelligent thought.  
“Hey Peter, guess we’re buddies, huh?” Claire said to him with her pleasant smile. Peter made a noise in his throat and quickly nodded, gulping. Harry watched from nearby with a knowing grin, ready to watch the show unfold.  
The kids headed inside as they’re ushered along, Peter scrambling for his train of thought. The tour began in the main lobby, where their tour guide introduced themself before giving the students a brief history and description of Oscorp. Then their tour guide led them down the hall into a few of the labs open to the public eye on the first floor. As they walked into a larger lab filled with various arachnids in containers, Claire glanced up and nudged Peter, pointing to the ceiling. He startled and followed her gaze at her direction to see a deflated balloon stuck to the ceiling.  
“Hey Pete, you wanna know the story of how that got up there?” Claire asked with a slight grin. Peter nodded, and she continued, “they tried to surprise my uncle for his birthday and Dr. Clark handed him a balloon to his right hand.” She snorted and snickered. It took Peter a moment to register the significance of her statement.  
“O-Oh right because, Dr. Connors, that’s your uncle and he... He doesn’t have a right arm, that’s right…” Peter sheepishly laughed as Claire giggled.  
Well, that was a start, he got a sentence out. Barely.  
They wandered up to a terrarium containing a daddy long legs, which was scuttling along a branch. Claire commented, “I always thought these guys looked sort of silly, with their itty-bitty bodies and they’re long spindly legs. And the name daddy long legs? Sounds kinky.” She giggled, and Peter laughed a bit sheepishly with her. They were admittedly kind of goofy looking arachnids, although not technically spiders, even if they were often confused as such. He could ramble about that for a while, but he didn’t want to bore Claire.  
Peter bit his lip as he glanced over at her; as she watched the arachnid scuttle along, her pretty little face lit up with a pretty little smile of amusement. He averted his gaze down to the camera hanging around his neck, then back at her. It was his job to take photos for the school paper and yearbook, maybe he could snap a couple photos… “Hey, um… Claire?” He piped up, clearing his throat. She turned to look at him.  
“Yes?”  
“Um, would you mind if I, uh… School pictures…?” Peter fumbled, holding up his camera and hoping she got what he was getting at.  
Claire looked down at the camera, then back up at him. “Oh sorry, am I in your way?” She stepped back away from the terrarium.  
“Ah-“ Peter held up his hand as he made a noise in his throat.  
“Is that better?”  
“N-No, I, er, I was hoping to, ah, get a couple pictures with you,” Peter squeaked out.  
“Oh, my bad. Sure, where do you want me to stand?”  
Peter gently directed her as he stepped back to get in position, holding up the camera. Claire stood beside the terrarium and fixed her hair before she smiled and posed.  
“Is this good?” She asked. Peter grinned a bit and nodded.  
“Yeah that’s great, thanks,” he assurec, taking one more step back to get the perfect angle.  
Claire joked, “you won’t make me look bad, right?”  
Peter murmured under his breath in response, “That’s impossible…” Although she didn’t hear him. As he prepared to take a few photos, a spider lowered down from the ceiling just above his hand.  
Had they been paying attention, they would have heard what the lab was currently researching and perhaps had a better clue on what would soon happen to them. The tour guide had gone on to explain that the arachnids gathered were for a study on the effects of radiation on web building patterns. For this study, many different kinds of arachnids had been subjected to various levels of radiation. A couple of these spiders had escaped from captivity, and one of them was lowering right down to Peter.  
Claire paused and looked over as her friends called to her, and Peter could barely get out a thanks as she hurried over at their call. Slowly he lowered the camera, watching her go quietly, not even noticing the spider on his hand. Not until he felt a sharp sting as the spider bit him. Peter gasped and shook his hand reflexively, the spider flying off and onto the floor. He glances at his hand where he was bitten, frowning a bit. That was an odd, sudden sting… He didn’t regard it much, though, as he returned his attention to the laboratory for more photo opportunities. Claire’s friends had called her over to look at some more colorful spiders, and once again she was out of reach from Peter, metaphorically and literally.  
Claire lingered by the container with the colorful spiders as her friends moved on to check out the tarantula nearby. A lot of people thought spiders were creepy or gross, but these were kind of cute. Then again, Claire was used to handling spiders, and she appreciated what they did in her house. Their webs helped deal with flies cheaply. Her eyes wandered over to a container, and she paused and stared for a moment. It appeared to be empty. Standing up straight, she examined the terrarium more closely, eyeing every corner and crevice. It was indeed devoid of spiders. However, there was a small spider scurrying down the table leg. Little bugger must’ve escaped. Smirking and shaking her head in amusement, she reached over with a cupped hand. The spider suddenly sprung right into her hand, and she hurriedly clamped her other hand over it to trap it. The jump surprised her, but that was awfully convenient. The transport would be easier. As she brought her cupped hands up to the empty terrarium, she squeaked in surprise as she felt a little sting on her palm. The bugger bit her! Huffing, she slid open the top of the terrarium and dropped the spider in before she quickly closed it, shutting the spider securely inside. She instinctively shook her hand, sticking her tongue out at the spider as she mumbled to herself, “well excuse me for saving you from being stepped on you ingrate.” Before the other kids could hear her talking to herself, she shuffled over to the group, leaving the spider behind.  
Peter and Claire don’t get much other interaction in for the remainder of the field trip, with Claire’s friends demanding her attention and Peter unable to compete. He did, however, get to talk to his friend Harry and get some decent pictures. After the tour, the bus took them back to the school, where they finished up their day and headed home. Peter and Claire both had a miserable walk back to their apartments as they started to feel nauseous. As Peter shuffled into his room and flopped on his bed, Claire did the same, falling onto her bed and hugging her teddy bear with a groan. Within the past hour, she had started to suddenly feel sick. Her stomach churned and she felt almost dizzy, achy, tingly. She felt awful. With a moan of discomfort, she buried her face in the teddy bear. She really hoped she wasn’t coming down with a cold, the last thing her mother needed to worry about was dealing with a sick child. Cold medicine was an extra cost she hated to burden her with. Perhaps some sleep would make it go away, or at least, put her out of her misery for now.  
Curled up on her bed, she drifted off into an uneasy sleep, where she was plagued with strange dreams and vivid nightmares about spiders and lizards. In his apartment, Peter suffered from similar strange nightmares infested with arachnids. The two toss and turn in their sleep in almost parallel, though neither know it. And as they did, their bodies began to go through a sort of metamorphosis, their very genetic code altering as it interacted with radioactive spider venom. Like their restless sleep, they metamorphize almost in parallel, yet distinctly.  
These changes wouldn’t go unnoticed.  
The following Saturday morning, Peter woke up to find he could see just fine without his glasses. He was also surprised to see, with his suddenly clear vision, that it looked like he had hit the gym in his sleep. Some sort of big change had happened, he wasn’t sure of what or why, but it didn’t seem to be bad. Claire had woken up and felt relatively normal, much better after her episode the previous night. However, she did notice something off when she headed out to go to the park and do some reading. To avoid a puddle, Claire decided to jump over it, because it was a small puddle, and this seemed like an easy solution. However, it did not end up being the simple task she figured it would be. As she jumped, she found herself flying much farther than she anticipated. With a strangled yelp of surprise, she crashed into the branches of a tree.  
“What the hell...?” She gaped, looking down at the ground, then around at the tree she was stuck in. How did that happen? A small jump over a puddle and she ended up in a tree? It didn’t make any sense. Carefully, she lowered herself back down to the ground. She had to investigate this anomaly further.  
Taking a step back and looking around, she tried another little hop. The “little hop” ends up being more of a leap, flying a few feet into the air and landing at least a meter away from her starting point. Baffled, she looked back at her starting point, then at her ending point, not sure how she got there. The distance traveled did not match the force she put into her hop! Did she dare try putting greater force into her jump?  
No, not with the last result. Not here. Something was clearly off. Uneasy, Claire hurried off to find some privacy to try and investigate what was wrong with her, because clearly something was.  
In an alleyway hidden from prying eyes, she discovered the extent of her new oddities. Just down the street, Peter had as well after his hand had gotten stuck to a door, and he had gone to an alleyway to investigate as well. They both find they are able to scale vertical surfaces with their hands and feet, and Claire found she was capable of jumping all the way to the top of the building with just the power of her legs. In fact, bounding from skyscraper to skyscraper was relatively easy for her. Something had clearly changed in them- a big change.


	2. With Great Power

The following week was spent relatively normally, aside from the two trying to get a handle on their newfound abilities and physiological changes. Peter no longer needed his glasses, which surprised his aunt May and his friend Harry, but no one else really seemed to care. Of course, no one really cared about Peter Parker, so his changes went fairly unnoticed.  
As they were considering their changes and what they could do with them, it all came to a head from an unexpected source. After school one evening, as kids exited the building, Flash Thompson pulled up in his new hotrod, revving the engine. He gave it a honk and flashed a charming, smug grin as he called out to Claire, “Hey baby! Check out my new ride!” Peter slowed to a stop on his way down the steps exiting the school building, staring ahead at Flash and his car.  
Claire gasped and ran over, gaping at the car. “Wow Flash, this is really yours?”  
Flash beamed with pride and nodded. “Uh huh. Wanna go for a ride?”  
“Of course!” Claire hopped in the passenger seat eagerly, and Peter watched them drive off, Flash whooping in triumph. Having a nice car like that, of course Claire was bound to go with him.  
Wait, a car…  
A thought occurred to Peter as he stood on the bottom step, watching Flash drive away with the girl of his dreams. Surely if he had a car, she would notice him, right? Thoughtful, Peter headed home to do some research. Once in his room, he sat down at his desk and opened his computer to start looking at cars for sale that could impress Claire Connors. As he searched, he remembered his whole money problem. He couldn’t afford a hotrod car. Peter glanced around at their humble abode as that fact sunk in. There was no way his Uncle Ben and Aunt May would fish out a bunch of money for a car. Frowning a bit at this realization, he redirected his research to look for quick ways to make big bucks short of selling a kidney.  
His eyes rested on an advertisement for cage match fighting…  
That week, Peter participated under the name “the human spider”, which the announcer incorrectly paged him as “spider-man”. After a brief tussle with Bonesaw, the reigning champ, Peter is skimped of the full pay because he didn’t drag out the fight for three minutes. Bitter, Peter allows a petty thief to get past him with the money stolen from the arena’s manager, and because of this, the thief shot his uncle waiting outside that tried to stop him, and…  
You know the story from there. Blaming himself for his uncle’s death, Peter learned a guilt-laden and powerful lesson that shaped him into who he would become. With great power, comes great responsibility.  
The very next week, another girl would learn that same lesson.  
That girl was Claire Connors, the very girl Peter had been trying to impress. She too was looking for money, but not for the same reason. Rather, there was a well-kept secret that Claire hid away from the world through a lot of fibbing and good acting.  
Claire Connors was dirt poor.  
She lived with her mother in a small apartment which was falling apart at the seams. No air conditioning, no cable television, hardly any food in the pantry or fridge. Claire regularly got her clothes at donation centers or thrift stores. All haircuts were courtesy of her mother or herself. Food was leftovers her mother brought home from work, along with the small amount of food stamps supplied. Claire did what she could to scrounge for free food elsewhere, often finding it at parties. Hence why it was so important to be invited to parties, thus why she worked hard to maintain her popular image. Wherever she could lighten her mother’s load, she would. Poor Ms. Connors worked herself ragged at the Moondance 24/7 diner to provide for her, which Claire never took for granted. It’s why she worked so hard to try and alleviate any costs where she could.  
Grabbing a newspaper someone tossed, Claire headed into her humble abode and shuffled into her room, sitting on her bed to look at the paper. Sometimes there were decent coupons inside, and without TV, it was where she got local news. Kids on social media didn’t post about the news much. She flipped through the pages, browsing through them, and paused on an advertisement for cage fighting. 1,000 dollars for 3 minutes in the ring? That’s it? She could last three minutes! Claire had taken free self defense classes at a local gym; she knew some moves. Also, with her newfound leg and upper body strength, she could easily pull that off. 1,000 dollars could buy them groceries, or new clothes for her mother, or help pay the bills…  
Cutting out the ad, she paced around her room as she mulled it over. A thousand dollars was nothing to snuff at, and three minutes wasn’t long at all. It was doable. Going to the arena as Claire Connors though probably wasn’t a great idea. She wasn’t exactly scary, for one. Two, everyone used stage names, that was kind of the vibe. And three, she did not need cage matches on her record when applying for college. It wouldn’t look great. It would be best if she went under a pseudonym and a disguise. Wheels in her head turning, she looked in her wardrobe for ideas. She ended up digging out black yoga pants, an old black hoodie, and a ski mask. This ought to cover her up. Putting the hoodie and pants on, she stuffed the mask in her pocket for the time being and made her way towards the arena.  
Right outside, she put on the mask and tucked in her hair before she headed inside. The arena was full of screaming fans waving various signs, barely legible over the pounding metal music on the speakers. Aside from a few lights for the exits and on the stage, it was dark. Seated at a table for sign up was a woman with more piercings than face, scrolling on her phone. Claire stepped up to the table and cleared her throat to get her attention. “Um, excuse me, I’d like to sign up for a round, please.”  
The woman at the table hardly even glanced her way as she passed her a form. “Sign this waiver, stage name or whatever I don’t care, as long as you sign it. Put your stage name on the second form, we’ll call you up when it’s your turn.” Claire took the papers and signed them as “Jumper” before handing them back. “You can hang out backstage if you want,” the piercing lady advised, still not looking up from her phone.  
“Okay, thanks,” Claire responded before she made her way to the backstage, glancing around the arena as she went. Admittedly, she was a bit nervous. She had never done anything like this before. Was this even legal? Probably at least borderline, who knew, but the prospect of her payout kept her in place. It would all be worth it if she won.  
After waiting around for roughly twenty minutes, they finally called on her for her turn in the ring. Swallowing back her nerves, she headed into the ring as the anonymous fighter, Jumper. People booed as she headed down the strip to the ring, and she paid no mind to it. Waiting for her in the ring was the revered Bonesaw, the big kahuna of this arena. He sneered in a cocky manner and put his hands on his hips as she stepped into the ring.  
“What now, am I fighting girl scouts?” Bonesaw jeered, his fans in the stands laughing.  
“You’ll wish I was a girl scout,” Claire retorted with a snort, cracking her knuckles. Slowly, the cage lowered down to entrap them, and the crowd started hooting.  
“Your time starts… Now!” The announcer yelled, and Bonesaw charged towards her, hardly hesitating. Claire grinned and sprung up, jumping over him in an impressive backflip. She landed behind him and threw a kick to the back of the wrestler’s head, sending him falling forward. It took him a moment to push himself back up, caught off guard by her agility. Growling, he whips around and lunges to tackle her. She smoothly slides out of the way and sends a spinning kick towards the back of his head to once again knock him down face first. He hit the floor with a hard thud, and she laughed, “if we were playing the floor is lava, you would be losing big time.”  
He laid still, not moving. Claire paused in her gloating after a moment, when he showed no sign of getting up. She tilted her head and cautiously stepped closer, leaning down to get a better look at him. “Hey, buddy, you fall asleep on me or something?” The sight of blood pooling under his face caused her to freeze, an icy chill running down her spine. “… Hey, you okay?” She asked as she gently shook him, getting no response. “Um… Mr. Referee?” Claire piped out, stepping back.  
“Hey, what’s going on in there?” The referee snapped, raising up the cage with the hit of a button. He hopped over the bands and went over to Bonesaw, lifting him up to check on him. The referee gasped and yelled, “Someone call an ambulance!” Claire covered her mouth in horror as she’s faced with the visage of her opponent, blood gushing from his nose and forehead. The crowd completely went bonkers, first filling the arena with gasps and screams, then the roaring of furious and disgusted fans. “What did you do?!” The referee barked at her, whipping his head over to glare her down.  
“I-I, I was, I just…” Claire fumbled for words, but hardly had any voice to speak with. Whatever voice she did have was coming out as a hoarse squeak. With the referee’s accusatory question and the angry roar of the crowd booing her, the atmosphere suddenly felt very heavy. Staggering back towards the edge of the stage, her eyes darted around the arena, registering the faces of the crowd. Then her eyes settled back on the bloodied face of Bonesaw, and her heart skipped a beat. Unable to take the building pressure, she fled the scene, running out of the building as fast as she could. She threw herself in a dumpster down the street and hid her face in her hands, trembling.  
The image of Bonesaw, motionless and bleeding, was plastered in her head, the sound of the referee yelling at her playing on loop in her head for backdrop. Like a hauntingly horrid motion picture, the scene kept playing over and over again, each time somehow worse than the last. Claire soon broke down into hysterical sobs, hugging her knees tightly to herself as she buried her face into the resulting crevice. She hadn’t meant to hurt him like that, what if he was seriously injured, or even potentially death-bound? Or already dead? The thought terrified her, that she could unintentionally have done something so severe to someone. It shook her to her very core. Her strength was incredibly dangerous if she was careless with it. She couldn’t afford to be careless.  
Because with great power comes great responsibility.


	3. Spiders Meet

Over the next month, Claire worked hard on crafting a better costume to hide her identity after her scare at the arena. It took a lot of stolen fabric scraps from craft stores and dumpster diving, but eventually it would all come to fruition in the form of a complete suit. The inspiration for her design was easy to find just from looking around her room at the abundance of spiders. What many considered to be pests, Claire considered to be friends. Without air conditioning, her window was frequently open, letting in a lot of bugs. Spiders took care of that bug problem. Watching one of the many spiders in her room wrap up a fly, the thought occurred to her that these eight-legged creatures were fairly close to the idea she had in mind for her alter-ego: helpful pest-remover. Though Claire wasn’t entirely certain what she wanted to do with this alter ego, she knew if she was going to use her new powers, she would have to have one. And what better theme than a spider?  
With this thought in mind, she crafted her suit modeled off the spider she thought she most resembled: a jumping spider. They jumped long distances, did not spin webs, and they were kind of cute in her opinion. At least, Claire tried her darndest to be cute. Cute girls were popular girls, and popular girls got party invites and freebies. So, she designed her suit to try and reflect her jumping spider muse, going with black and blue based loosely off of the peacock spider and shiny blue jumping spider. There was no particular reason for this choice other than black seemed like a stealthy color that wouldn’t show dark stains, and she liked the color combination.  
Finally finished, she lifted up her suit to look it over from hood to toe. All hand sewn, she had a million finger pricks and calluses to show for it. And it looked pretty damn fine. Grinning a bit with pride, she tried it on and looked in the mirror. It certainly left nothing to the imagination- as was the nature of spandex. The suit did do the trick in hiding her identity. Now it was time for a test drive. Crawling out her window, she climbs up the vertical surface to the roof of her apartment building. She takes a breath, then jumps to an adjacent rooftop, beginning her first rendezvous as Jumping Spider.  
Just an hour before, Doctor Curtis Connors had received a figurative slap on the hand for lack of results. He had been working on a serum incorporating a lizard’s ability to regrow limbs to allow humans the same prowess. It was a deeply personal project, after his right arm had been blown off serving as a medic on the battlefield. To his dismay, none of his prototypes had proven successful. Results varied from no measurable effect to various medical problems and even death of his lab rats. Lab rat death was always the most discouraging. Without any recent promising results, the CEO of Oscorp and Dr. Connors’s boss, Norman Osborn, was growing impatient. Science took time, but also money, and without profit in the foreseeable future, things weren’t looking good.   
But perhaps that luck was about to turn. Observation of rats 31-37, which he had injected with his latest beta serum, had successfully re-grown their amputated limbs. As far as he had seen over the past 24 hours, no adverse side effects other than slightly raised blood pressure and brief fever. Considering the tradeoff, these minor symptoms seemed insignificant. Currently he was watching one of the injected rats, fidgeting with his pen in his left hand. The reaction of these rats was indeed promising, but what he was looking for was a serum for humans, not rodents. As similar as a rat’s basic biology was to a human, it still wasn’t human, and did not prove the serum’s effectiveness on a human. The only way to tell for certain was through human trials.  
Slowly, Curtis looks towards his nub of a right arm, then back at the serum on his desk. Setting his pen down, he traded it for a syringe…  
If he needed a human trial, he would do it himself.  
Back out in the streets, a boy had donned his own homemade suit for the first time and was perched on the side of a building, looking out at the city bustling with life below. Fiddling with his recently developed web-shooters, he made sure they were secured on his wrists before he looked back out at the streets, sucking in a breath. Once he took this leap of faith, there was no going back. The prospect frightened him, but he also felt a growing sense of excitement. It was something like a feeling of stage fright, but like all cases of stage fright, had to be gotten over- the show had to go on. It was time to use his powers for good, and butterflies in his stomach couldn’t stop him now. Taking a deep breath, he fired a web, and Spider-Man swung out into the New York skyline for the very first time, marking his debut.   
Within the hour, the two costumed individuals would meet, completely unaware of the existence of the other until then. Jumping Spider saw him first, swinging by. She paused and watched him for a moment, tilting her head in curiosity. Who was that? Squinting a bit, she sprung after him, landing on the same building he stopped on to call out to him, “hey!”  
Spider-Man startled and looked up at her from his position on the wall. “Uh, hey!” He replied, waving a bit.  
“What gives?”  
Spider-Man blinks. “What do you mean?”  
She calls back, “are you copying me or something?”  
He couldn’t be copying someone he didn’t know, and what made her say that? Furrowing his brow a bit in confusion, he climbed up to meet her face to face. “No, I came up with this on my own,” he replied, stopping before her.  
They both pausc as they truly came face to face, taking the other in. Like looking in a mirror, they both tilted their heads, reflecting the movement of the other.  
After a long moment of silence, he finally spoke up again. “Oh, uh, I see what you mean, with the spider on your costume thing… Wait, who are you?”  
“I’m Jumping Spider, who are you?”  
“I’m Spider-Man.”  
Jumping Spider blinked. “What’s with the spider getup, why this theme?”  
Spider-Man looked over himself before looking back at her and answering, “well, I climb walls, I shoot webs, I kind of figured it would make sense. What about you?”  
“Um, I climb walls too, but I can’t make webs or anything. I jump.” She paused, then quickly added, “okay the way I put that made it sound seriously lame, but when I say I jump, I mean jump up onto buildings from ground level.”  
Spider-Man sat more upright, intrigued. “Wow, really?”  
“Yeah,” Jumping Spider admitted, crawling down to crouch on the vertical wall with him. He gaped at this feat, looking between them before his gaze ultimately rests on her.  
“Woah!” He exclaimed, instinctively bringing his hand up to run through his hair, but of course just smoothing over the top of his mask. Realizing this, he quickly lowered his hand again, embarrassed. “Hold up hold up, did you also get super strong and fast?”  
Jumping Spider shrugged a bit and nodded. “I guess so, yeah.”  
Spider-Man stared at her a moment before stating somewhat under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear, “You’re like me…”  
They were indeed alike, to an uncanny degree. Never had they expected to encounter this, believing themselves to be the only one. Clearly, that was not the case. It was almost like fate brought them together. As this thought registered in them both, they gaze at each other in a long, thoughtful silence.  
This was only interrupted when they both got a funny, tingling feeling, like the hairs on the back of their necks were standing on end. They both blinked a few times and looked around, unsettled by the feeling. When they noticed the other doing the same, they returned to looking at each other.  
“Did you feel that?” Jumping Spider asked, raising up a hand to rub at the back of her neck.  
Spider-Man nodded. “If you mean that tingly anxiety thing, yeah.”  
“Oh my God we really are alike,” Jumping Spider exclaimed, laughing a bit. He laughed a bit with her.  
“Yeah, no kidding,” he added, then he paused. “Wait, that feeling, what does it mean? If we both had it at the same time, it must mean something.”  
He had a point, there was no way it was a coincidence- there had to be some sort of significance to it. “Well, it kind of felt like anxiety…” Jumping Spider mumbled, looking around. There was nothing in the immediate vicinity to give her sudden anxiety though. Spider-Man looked around with her, puzzling over the sensation. It did feel like anxiety, and he knew exactly what anxiety felt like. Anxiety was not a new sensation for him, but the way this presented acutely, and how she felt it too, that meant something. But what?  
The sound of police sirens caught his attention, and he looked down to the streets towards the noise. The way they were driving meant they were heading towards a problem, and he had the strangest feeling this problem was a doozy. Glancing back at Jumping Spider, he spoke up, “Maybe it has something to do with what those cops are heading for?”  
Jumping Spider looked out at the cop cars, considering that before shrugging. “Maybe. It’s worth looking into, right? Let’s go see.” With that, she sprung off of the building to chase after them, Spider-Man right behind her. They both followed the cars towards Oscorp, where there appeared to be some kind of commotion in the streets outside. Both spiders landed on the side of a building and looked out at the commotion, trying to assess the situation. There were a couple overturned cars and a blockade of cop cars already formed. The streets had been cleared, aside from something large and inhuman. That captured their attention fairly quickly.  
Spider-Man’s eyes widened. “What the heck is that?”  
Her eyes narrowed as she tilted her head. “I don’t know, but I think I see a tail?”  
“Something’s clearly wrong here, let’s go check it out.” Shooting a web, he swung himself down to the ground by the inhuman creature. “Hey! What seems to be the problem?” The creature turned to face him, revealing the scaly green visage of a giant lizard. “Woah,” Spider-Man gasped, stepping back in surprise.  
“That’s not something you see every day,” Jumping Spider commented as she landed near Spider-Man, staring at the massive reptilian creature looming before them. “Wait, is that a dinosaur?”  
“I AM NOT A DINOSSSSAUR, FOOLISH MAMMAL!” The reptile snarled, “I AM A LIZARD!”  
“You sure are, buddy,” Spider-Man remarked, eyeing him over as he took another step back. “And correction, I’m an arachnid, not a mammal.”  
“LIZARDSSS EAT PESSTSSS LIKE YOU!” The lizard hissed, lunging at him. Spider-Man startled and sprung out of the way.  
“Woah, hey!” Spider-Man exclaimed as the lizard skidded to a halt after missing his target. “You wouldn’t want to eat me, I, uh, I’m all skin and bones! No protein!”  
Jumping Spider eyed him over from nearby and tutted, “yeah right, everyone can see those muscles through that tight spandex.”   
“You’re not helping,” Spider-Man snipped, scrambling out of the way of the beast as it tried to swipe at him. Then he paused and looked back at her, eyes widening. “Wait were you checking me out?”  
“Maybe.”   
Not the greatest time, though he couldn’t help but feel a bit hot beneath the mask. That monster was coming up on him fast though, unrelenting. They needed a way to restrain it or something, and his mind muddling with the other spider checking him out was making it a bit tricky to think.  
“Okay gotta focus, this thing is after us we gotta tie it down or something,” he hopped back once more to narrowly miss another swipe, admittedly showing off a bit with an easy backflip to put a brief distance between them. His web formula, albeit a relatively new invention, could potentially work. He had strength tested it a number of times, it could reasonably restrain him, right?   
Deciding to give it a go, Spider-Man fired a web at the back of the Lizard. The lizard hardly seemed to notice as he turned to face Spider-Man, baring his teeth. Before he can give it a tug, the Lizard abruptly lunged in the direction of an alleyway, the sudden pull throwing Spider-Man off his feet. With a yelp, he crashed into Jumping Spider and they both fell over.   
“Ow-!” Jumping Spider exclaimed as he fell on top of her, causing her to hit the pavement.   
Spider-Man quickly sat up, rather embarrassed. “Sorry-!” He helped her to her feet and looked in the direction the Lizard went, just in time to see his tail round the corner. Jumping Spider followed his gaze.  
“Come on, after him!” Jumping Spider shouted as she took off in pursuit, Spider-Man hastily following. They chase him into the alleyway, but find it empty. Puzzling, they looked around, unaware he was lurking on the wall above them…  
Unaware until they felt that funny tingling feeling on their necks, every instinct in their bodies telling them to move ASAP. They both immediately reacted to this impulse and sprung forward, just in time to narrowly avoid being squashed by the large lizard as he hopped down from his perch, landing on the pavement with a loud thud.   
“Woah that was close-!” Jumping Spider gasped, stepping back, hands raised up in a defensive position. “Who are you and what’s your problem?” She asked warily.   
“I AM THE LIZARD, AND HUMANSSS ARE MY PROBLEM,” the Lizard responds, tail lashing. “GETTING IN MY WAY AND THINKING THEY ARE SSSSUPERIOR! NOW THEY WILL LEARN THEIR TRUE PLACCCE: BENEATH USSS!” With that tirade out and over with, the Lizard lunged for them both, claws out. They both sprang out of the way, sticking to adjacent walls.  
“Woah woah hey, take it easy!” Jumping Spider yelped.   
“Okay yeah we really gotta restrain this guy!” Spider-Man announced, quickly scurrying out of range of the Lizard as he pivoted to claw at the space he had just been. His last attempt didn’t turn out super great, so he would have to revise, and fast. Thinking quickly, Spider-Man fired a web at the Lizard’s tail, sure to instantly give it a yank before he could be pulled off balance first. This caused the reptilian beast to stagger backward. Pitching in to help, Jumping Spider sprung from her place on the wall and pivoted mid-air to elbow him in the jaw. Her added force sent him falling onto his back, with her landing on her feet nearby his head.   
“Web him down!” She called up to him, quickly backing away from the Lizard to avoid his nasty jaws. Obediently, Spider-Man rapidly fired webs at the limbs of their opponent in an attempt to stop him. The Lizard snarled and thrashed, all too easily breaking through the webs to get back to his feet. Hissing, he whacked Jumping Spider with his tail, throwing her aside roughly.  
“Jumping Spider-!” Spider-Man gasped, then jumped into action by lunging at the Lizard. He did not take him down as he had hoped and planned on doing. Instead, he crashed into the Lizard’s back, wrapping his arms around his neck. The Lizard almost instantly reacted by violently shaking his head and body to throw him off, but Spider-Man holds on tightly. It was like a terrible mechanical bull ride, trying to chokehold a giant lizard man. Jumping Spider hurriedly got back to her feet and grabbed the Lizard’s tail to yank on it and slow down his thrashing. This does indeed do the trick as he is forced to deal with her as well. To take care of them both, the Lizard backed up into the wall to ram Spider-Man and Jumping Spider into it. The wall cracked and crumbled upon impact, hitting all three of them with a cascade of bricks as the wall fell through. Spider-Man and Jumping Spider are forced to let go upon impact, dropping onto the floor inside the building.   
“Agh-!” Jumping Spider groaned, bringing up her arms to shield her face, Spider-Man having to do the same. The Lizard flinched as the bricks hit him as well, appearing to stun him. Stumbling forward, he shook his head, making a low rumbling sound. With this opening as the Lizard was stumbling, the spiders pushed themselves out of the rubble, albeit with some pain and hesitation.   
“Ow…” Spider-Man moaned, kicking rubble off himself. Noticing Jumping Spider by him, he did his best to ignore the pain and help her at least sit upright. “Are you okay?” He asked, with genuine concern.   
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Jumping Spider answered, rubbing her head. Glancing up at the stumbling lizard, now was probably a good time to strike. However, they were both a bit stunned and sore themselves, and jumping up to immediately pounce on the opportunity wasn’t entirely possible. Before they could take the chance, the Lizard snapped out of his stupor, glancing down at his hands. Growling, he suddenly turned and ran for it, abandoning the two spiders. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Jumping Spider called after him, sitting forward.   
Too late, he had taken off, slipped into a manhole it looked like. They weren’t going to find him very well down there, and even if they did it wasn’t the greatest place to be fighting the guy.  
“Damnit…” Jumping Spider cursed under her breath, slowly getting to her feet and using the remains of the wall for support. She offered her hand to Spider-Man, which he took, and she helped him to his feet, allowing him to use her for his support. “What the hell even was that…?”  
Spider-Man shook his head, equally mystified. “I don’t know… But I have a bad feeling he’ll be back, and it won’t be pretty.”   
“I do too.”  
He looked back at her, wheels in his head turning as he pieced together everything that just happened. Giant lizard that hated mammals and he got away, a fellow spider, there was certainly a lot to think about. Was it safe to assume her as an ally in his crusade against crime? They hadn’t gotten to the part of purpose for their costumed antics yet, but she hadn’t hesitated to try and help him restrain the Lizard. Of course, that also could’ve been due to the fact that she had thrown herself into that confrontation. He wanted to believe she was in this for the same reason he was, but before he could go making assumptions, he had to confirm.   
“If he comes back, will you help me deal with him?” Spider-Man asked, hopeful. It might’ve been too much to ask if she would be joining him in all his costumed endeavors, but this at least was on topic and focused, short-sighted.   
Jumping Spider hardly hesitated to nod. “Of course. After that performance, I’m not leaving you to deal with him alone.” Her tone was light, almost humorous. Was she teasing him?   
Spider-Man blinked. “What do you mean?”  
“Well, if we did that poorly against him together, I can’t imagine taking him on alone would be good…”   
She was poking fun at them both. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he responded with a lighter tone as well, “without you, I’m sure I’d do much worse.” Spider-Man laughed a bit.   
“Though I don’t know how much I helped,” Jumping Spider admitted.  
“What, no, of course you helped, you grabbed his tail so he stopped shaking me around like a cowboy on a bull.”  
“Yeah, but then he smashed us both into the wall.”   
“He also threw me after I tried to web him. You helped when you elbowed his jaw and knocked him down.” Spider-Man mentioned.  
“Only for the bastard to get back up and knock me over.”  
“So… We both failed,” Spider-Man stated, lightheartedly.   
She smiled a bit. “Yeah, I guess we did. We both suck.” She laughed, causing him to smile a bit. “But we learn from our failures, right? Now we know what not to do.”  
Jumping Spider had a point. Though failure stung, it was a learning experience. “I guess you’re right,” he admitted, shrugging a bit. Failing together didn’t feel so bad as failing alone, and her words lightened the sting of it.   
“We’ll do better next time.” Jumping Spider assured.  
“... You’re right. We will do better next time. Next time, we’ll be more prepared.” Partially he was assuring himself, but partially he was trying to convene to her that he appreciated her encouragement. She seemed to get that. “So… I’ll see you around?” He asked, once again hopeful.   
She nodded. “Of course. We’ll see each other again, I’m sure of it.”   
And they would see each other again, many more times. This was only the beginning of a blossoming relationship that would grow into something truly spectacular.


	4. The Strange Case of Dr. Connors and Mr. Lizard

The following night, Claire was sitting in her room finishing up her homework when she heard her mother in the other room. It sounded like she was on the phone, which was a relative rarity. Curious, she quietly snuck over to the door to listen through it.  
“No, I haven’t seen him. Has it been long enough to file a missing person case with the police?”  
A missing person case? Who was missing?  
“... Okay so you filed it, good. So he never came back from work last night? Goodness I can’t begin to imagine how worried you are Martha…”  
Aunt Martha? Judging by the conversation, it sounded like her Uncle Curtis was missing. She frowned a bit, knitting her eyebrows. Why would Uncle Curtis not come home after work?   
“I’m so sorry, I hope he turns up soon, I really do. I’ll keep an eye out for him and say something to the folks at work.”   
Last night, she and Spider-Man caught that lizard creature outside Oscorp…   
Oh no. It didn’t get her uncle, did it? Worry started to set in as that thought occurred to her. She had to help look for him, but would she go as Claire or Jumping Spider? Her uncle would recognize Claire, perhaps he would respond better if she found him instead.   
After her mother went to work, Claire left the apartment herself to look for her uncle. Hopefully she could find him soon, and hopefully that lizard creature hadn’t gotten to him. Claire headed down the sidewalk, keeping her eye out for any sign of him as she went.   
Meanwhile just overhead, Spider-Man had come out to look out for that lizard and his spider companion. He paused as he noticed in the streets below a distressed looking Claire Connors. The young hero stopped on the side of a business building to watch her for a moment, concerned about her apparent disquietude. What could be wrong, and could he help? Hardly letting his nerves get to him about talking to the girl of his dreams, he lowered down on a web and called out to her, “hey, everything okay?”  
She startled and looked over to him. Spider-Man was hanging just by her, checking up on her. She knew him from the previous night, but she would have to play dumb. Easy.   
“Oh my goodness,” she feigned surprise, placing her hand over her heart. “You startled me, mister..?”  
“Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man,” he introduced as he held out his hand to shake, all the while upside down. Claire took his hand to shake, sort of amused at the prospect of an upside down handshake and how awkward it was. “You seem a little lost, is there something I can help you with?”  
“Maybe actually, yeah,” Claire admitted, “I’m looking for my uncle. He didn’t go home after work last night, and we don’t know where he is. I’m worried about him.”   
Her uncle, that’s right, her uncle worked at Oscorp. He had read a few of his dissertations. “He’s missing?” Spider-Man asked, raising his eyebrows. Claire nodded, twiddling her fingers with worry. “I’m really sorry to hear that,” he sympathized, genuinely upset to hear the news about her uncle’s disappearance. “Maybe I can help you look for him?” For her, he would readily drop whatever he was doing. Of course, he couldn’t say that to her…  
“I would really appreciate the help,” Claire said, perking a bit at his willingness to assist her.   
“Then I will help. A spider’s eye view from the skyline might be helpful. I could swing you around if you’d like..?” He mentioned a bit shyly, though doing his best not to show it.   
That could potentially be useful and efficient. It was worth a shot. “Yes please.”  
At her affirmative response, he lowered down and set his feet on the ground, standing upright. Carefully, Spider-Man gathered her into his arms, cheeks burning under his mask. Thank God his suit hid that. Holding her close and securely, he shot a web and slung them up to the skyline. Claire gasped and held on tightly, her long blonde hair flying with the sudden movement. With her hanging on, he swung about Manhattan in search of the missing doctor, both keeping a sharp eye out for him. It was a funny, yet thrilling feeling having his long time crush cling onto him so tightly. It certainly made it hard to focus at first, but her worry quickly helped him return to focus. Finding Dr. Connors was important- there was no time to be getting shy and awkward.   
They swung around and searched for him for a good while, relatively quiet to maintain their focus on the task at hand. Finally, they spot the Lizard from above. Spider-Man stopped to perch on a rooftop, carefully setting Claire down.   
“Uh oh, that lizard is back,” Spider-Man commented, peering down at him.   
“The what?” Claire asked, once again expertly playing dumb.   
He didn’t take his eyes off the enemy below as he answered, “the Lizard, some crazy guy I ran into last night who hates mammals.  
Claire peeked out at the Lizard as he scurried down an alleyway, and was disturbed to find him wearing a familiar lab coat with the right arm sleeve rolled up. “.. He’s wearing my uncle’s lab coat,” Claire piped up. This statement caused Spider-Man to look back at her, raising his concern.   
“It is-? How can you tell?” He asked.   
“The way the right arm sleeve is rolled up, but the left one isn’t.”   
Why would he be wearing Dr. Connors’ lab coat? It certainly raised suspicion and made him nervous. “... That’s not good. Stay here, I’m going to go investigate.” Before she could protest, he held up his hand, signifying he wasn’t allowing arguing over it. He crawled down to the alleyway, where the Lizard was scuttling into the sewers via a manhole. This time, he would be following him. As quietly as he could, Spider-Man followed him into the sewers.   
Claire stood on the roof where she had been left by Spider-Man, discontent to be waiting helplessly. It wasn’t exactly her style. If that lizard creature had her uncle, she wanted to help deal with him. Although she didn’t have her suit, that didn’t necessarily mean she was useless. Using the fire escape, Claire made her way down, determined to assist Spider-Man. Surely there was something she could do.   
Lifting up the manhole cover, she startled and scrambled back as a big scaly hand whacked the cover out of her hands, sending it crashing into a dumpster. A split second later, the Lizard crawled out of the ground, Spider-Man clinging onto his tail and being dragged out with him.   
“Claire-! Stay back!” Spider-Man exclaimed, digging his feet into the pavement to try and force the Lizard to stop. That does succeed in slowing him down due to the resistance. Claire did back up, but she didn’t intend to stay back for too long. Spider-Man’s strength and hold on the Lizard forces him to a halt, the large beast whipping his head back to snarl at him.   
“LET GO YOU PESSSKY SSSPIDER!” He hissed, reaching back to swipe at him and narrowly missing.  
“And let you run free? I don’t think so!” Spider-Man retorted, stubbornly holding his ground.   
The Lizard responded by suddenly stepping back and closing the distance between them that made Spider-Man’s hold taught, instantly slackening the hold. Before the Lizard could turn around and swipe him, he let go and jumped back. Claire ran over to a trash can near the exit of the alleyway, and as the Lizard turned to run for the exit, she knocked the can down. The Lizard tripped and crashed over the tumbling trash can, effectively stalling his escape for the time being.   
He hissed curses under his breath, fumbling to get up. Spider-Man took the opportunity to shoot a few webs in an attempt to stick him down, but it would not last- the Lizard was too riled up to go down that easily. The Lizard writhed and snapped free of the webbed binds, scrambling to his feet with a bit of a struggle. Snarling, he turned back to face Spider-Man, snapping at him, “I WILL NOT GO DOWN THAT EASSSSILY.” Then, forgoing his attempts at escape in his growing impatience, the Lizard lunged at Spider-Man, tackling him to the ground.   
Claire stumbled back to avoid getting in the way, cringing as the large reptile took down Spider-Man. She had to act fast, she had to do something to help him, something any normal human could do. Frantically, she looked around for a solution, and found it in an empty glass beer bottle. Picking it up, she ran over to the two wrestling on the ground and gave it a good swing, smashing it on the Lizard’s head. This triggered the reptile to get off of Spider-Man, stunned by the hit, and allowed Spider-Man to get the upper hand. He delivered a solid kick to the Lizard’s gut and sent him falling onto his back. Upon impact, he groaned, and a few of his scales shed from his arm. This does not deter him yet, but as he sat up, Claire came back over with a trash can and stuffed it over his head. He screeched and fumbled back, grabbing for the can to pull it off his head.   
Spider-Man backed up to Claire, attempting to usher her away from the monster. “Claire, please, stay back, I’ll take care of this,” he pleaded.   
“No, I’m helping,” Claire asserted, not budging on the matter. She would continue to do everything in her power to help take down this monster. Spider-Man recognized that as she affirmed her position, and knew there wasn’t much he could to to convince her otherwise.   
“... All right, just… Please, be careful,” he added before turning back on the Lizard as he threw off the garbage can and got to his feet, furious.   
It only took a moment for the two to pop off on each other again, lunging at and intercepting each other. After a long hard tousle, Spider-Man had gotten the Lizard pinned to the ground in a chokehold, but his lashing tail still proved to be a problem as it flailed and whacked at the costumed boy. It had to be stopped. Claire frantically looked for a way to pin it down, not wanting to rely on her own strength- she hadn’t tested that to its limits yet. Besides, Jumping Spider had the power, not Claire Connors. Her gaze settled on a large nail that had fallen out of the trash.  
She picked the nail up and snuck over to the Lizard’s tail, carefully positioning herself and the nail. Once opportunity struck, she thrust the nail downward and pierced through his tail and right into the sidewalk, skewering the tail like a thumbtack on a corkboard. The Lizard shrieked in pain and tried to pull his tail out, but the pull hurt far worse, forcing him to stop. Claire pressed her weight into the nail to keep it in place, protecting Spider-Man from the lashing of the scaly tail and giving him the complete upperhand. With their combined efforts, Spider-Man managed to knock him out through his non-lethal chokehold.   
Once he was certain he was out, Spider-Man let go of the Lizard’s neck and stood up, letting out a breath. He then turned to look at Claire, immediately easing his stance. “Hey, are you all right?”  
Claire nodded a bit. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she responded, standing upright and brushing her hands off on her pant legs. Just a bit dirtied and scuffed up, nothing serious. “Are you?”  
“I.. Yeah, I’m okay, thanks for asking,” Spider-Man answered, tickled pink that she cared to ask. Then he noticed a change in the lizard, and he was forced to redirect his attention to him.   
The Lizard appeared to be shrinking and molting. Claire peeked around his shoulder at him as well. “Uh… Is he molting?”   
“Sure looks it,” Spider-Man added, stepping back. Before their eyes, the Lizard shedded his scales and his tail shriveled off, along with his right arm. The flesh beneath the shed skin was mammalian, caucasian....  
They’re both surprised as the molt ends and leaves behind Dr. Curtis Connors.  
Claire gasped and stepped back, covering her mouth. “Uncle Curtis…?” Her uncle was that monster…? This was where he had been, gone missing and turned into a large reptile? How could that be?   
Spider-Man was equally shocked at the development. What on earth had happened to him? Kneeling down by the doctor, Spider-Man felt his forehead as he looked him over. He seemed to be okay now, back to normal, but the fact he was that creature at all was terribly concerning, even if he wasn’t currently. He glanced back up at Claire, and his heart sank at the look of shock and horror on her face. Standing back up, he stepped over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, wanting to comfort her. However, he wasn’t sure how much he could. What could he say, sorry your uncle is a lizard? They weren’t even sure what, why, or how. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what this felt like to her. He had lost his uncle earlier that year, but this wasn’t the same- Dr. Connors wasn’t dead. The best he could think to do was stand with her in comforting solidarity.  
They both watched over the passed out doctor in silent preponderance, until the doctor stirred. “Uncle?” Claire spoke up, kneeling down by him. Spider-Man joined her, kneeling down beside her.   
Dr. Connors groaned, and his eyes slowly opened. “Unh… What happened..? Claire-?”  
Claire hardly hesitated to hug him, gulping, “Uncle Curtis!”   
Surprised, he sort of butted his chin into the nook of her shoulder and neck, unable to hold her back as his one remaining arm was being used to keep him propped up. “Claire, what’s going on, where are we? And… Who is this gentleman in spandex?” The doctor asked, shifting his gaze to Spider-Man.   
“Oh, uh, I’m Spider-Man, hi,” the young vigilante introduced with an awkward little wave. Dr. Connors was acting awfully lost, did he not remember what just happened? “So… You don’t remember how you got here?”   
Dr. Connors looked thoughtful a moment before replying, “Well… I do remember some things, albeit it’s all rather fuzzy. It feels more like a dream than reality.”   
“Can you tell us what you remember?” Spider-Man implored.   
Dr. Connors nodded. “I do believe I can, yes… I remember working in my lab on neogenics, I’ve been working on this project to incorporate a lizard’s ability to regenerate limbs in mammals. I thought I made a breakthrough and injected myself as the first human test. The rest from there is fairly blurry… I dreamt I was a large bipedal lizard.”   
Claire pulled away from her hug to look at him, biting her lip. “That… Might not have been a dream.”   
Curtis blinked and looked at her funny. “What do you mean by that?”   
He truly didn’t seem to remember that just minutes ago, he was rampaging as a giant reptile. The question was, should she tell him, or was it best to just ignore it and move on? If he injected himself with a serum he made, she ought to inform him of his mistake so he could learn from it- that was just basic science. Even if hearing it would potentially be painful.   
“Um, you were… Kind of actually a giant lizard monster, it wasn’t a dream,” Claire told him.  
“I… What-?”   
Spider-Man quickly pitched in to back her up, “she was looking for you after you went missing, we saw a lizard and thought he had done something to you because he was wearing your lab coat. But after we took him down, the lizard molted, and, well, that turned out to be you?”   
Dr. Connors appeared to be greatly troubled by what the kids were telling him, eyebrows knit with concern. After a moment, he spoke up again, apologetic. “I’m… Terribly sorry about that, I had no idea…”   
“It’s okay, everything is okay!” Spider-Man reassured, giving him a double thumbs up. “What’s important is you’re good now.”   
Claire nodded in agreement. “Right, exactly. I’m just glad you’re okay, I was worried you wouldn’t be.”   
“Yes, of course, though my head is killing me,” Dr. Connors stated, sitting more upright to rub his temple. “But I suppose that’s the least of our problems… I’m very sorry for any trouble I may have inadvertently caused.”  
“It’s all right, Doc,” Spider-Man reassured, offering his hands to help both the doctor and his niece to their feet. “No harm no foul, right? Let’s get you home.”   
Spider-Man then proceeded to escort Dr. Connors home, Claire walking with them. Once at his house, Claire spun up a lie for him to use, which he reluctantly accepted: he had simply gotten far too wrapped up in his work. Hiding behind an adjacent building, Spider-Man and Claire peered around the corner to watch Martha accept Curtis back into their home, overjoyed and relieved to see him. His wife readily brought him in and closed the door behind them, leaving Spider-Man and Claire to themselves. After the door closed, he turned to look at her to find her meeting his gaze.  
There was an elephant in the room after what happened that had to be addressed, but neither knew how to even begin or what to say. Or rather, where to begin.   
Claire was the first to speak up. “... Thank you.”   
“I, of course, it’s no trouble at all, I… It’s just the job of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man,” he answered, fumbling to keep his cool. Not that he had much cool to begin with. “I’m glad I could help.”   
She turned to face him entirely, rubbing her arm in a nervous tic. “I do have one more favor to ask, if it’s not too much…”   
“No no of course not, ask away, anything for you! I mean, er, anything I can do to help,” Spider-Man stammered, trying to stand taller and stronger. It was clear he was trying too hard to do this, making it difficult for Claire not to laugh.   
Claire smiled a bit in amusement at his attempts to seem macho, but didn’t let any laughter escape as she said, “I would really appreciate it if you could keep this whole ordeal quiet.”   
Spider-Man blinked and eased his stance. “Oh, you mean the thing about your uncle being a lizard?”   
Claire nodded. “Yes, that. You saw how he didn’t remember what he had done as that thing, he’s innocent. It was an honest mistake, and I don’t want him to pay for it, like costing him his job or reputation or anything… So, could you please be discrete about it?”   
How could he possibly say no to her? Not only because he sympathized with her, but she was right- Dr. Connors was indeed innocent. He didn’t deserve the repercussions he would have to face for his mistake. So, in agreement, Spider-Man nodded. “You can count on me, I won’t tell anyone.”  
Claire gave him a small smile. “Thank you.” Something told her she could trust this guy.   
“Er, maybe I could take you home?” He offered, holding his hand out to her.   
Her smile widened as she took his hand. “I would like that.”   
Pulling her in securely, he fired a web and swung her in the direction of her apartment complex, as she directed. It would be no trouble keeping that secret for her; he wouldn’t dream of breaking it. On their way, he couldn’t help but cast frequent glances at her, still a bit unbelieving that he was really holding her so close. Peter Parker never would have found himself in a place like this. Maybe this Spider-Man gig had some perks.   
Landing on the roof of her apartment complex, he carefully set her down. “Thank you for choosing spider airlines, we hope you choose us again for your next trip,” Spider-Man joked. He perked as she chuckled. She liked it!   
“Thanks, though I’m a little disappointed there were no peanuts or pretzels,” she joked back. Claire herself had never actually been aboard an airplane or even left the city, but she knew that they served peanuts or pretzels from jokes she had heard.   
Spider-Man laughed. “Maybe next time, I’ll remember to bring some for you.” In fact, he would take a mental note of that. Hopefully he would remember, though he might feel sort of silly carrying around pretzels in anticipation of swinging Claire around, which may or may not happen again. A boy could dream.   
“I would appreciate that. But first, how should I pay my fare?” She asked, smirking in a bit of a coy, playful manner.   
Spider-Man insisted, “oh no, no payment necessary.”  
“But I must pay you back somehow, for your help, the ride, your discretion… I do owe you,” Claire continued, looking thoughtful a moment. Then she appeared to decide on something, leaning in and planting a kiss on his cheek. The boy froze up at the feel of her lips, even if it wasn’t directly on his skin. The meaning and the feeling was still there. He could feel blood rush to his cheeks, and for a moment, his brain seemed to short circuit. She smiled at him. “Will that do?”  
“Y-Yeah, that’s great, I mean, that’s fine, that’s good, that works, yeah,” he stammered, desperately trying to gather up any dignity he had left to kick start his brain into working again after it’s brief shutdown. It was more than fine, but he had to act cool. Which he was failing terribly at.   
Claire giggled a bit, amused by his reaction. “Good. See you around, then?”  
“Yeah, see you around.” He grinned a bit in turn before waving and swinging off and on his way.  
Claire watched him go, then headed down the stairwell all the way to the ground floor, then out to the street again. She continued down the sidewalk towards home, which wasn’t too far, but far enough. Of course she hadn’t given him her true address- she had directed him to a ritzy apartment complex to maintain her illusion that she was an uptown girl. Even if he was a stranger to her, it was still best to maintain the lie. A weak link in the chain threatened breaking it. However, she did have a good feeling about this guy, like she could trust him. It was a rare feeling for her, and perhaps a fleeting one. Only time would tell. But for now, it felt kind of nice.


End file.
